


Rhymes with Red

by SEpupppupp (ForNought)



Series: Rose-tinted [1]
Category: IZONE (Band), Produce 48 (TV)
Genre: Gen, Reincarnation, Supernatural Elements, death mention, some characters are undead
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-30
Updated: 2018-10-30
Packaged: 2019-08-10 21:16:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,315
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16462481
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ForNought/pseuds/SEpupppupp
Summary: Wonyoung has already died several times. Yujin doesn't find it odd that someone else has died for the first time.





	Rhymes with Red

**Author's Note:**

> this is linked to a couple of other fics i suddenly thought up but i can't remember i wrote anything this quickly so obviously it is not g**d at all

Wonyoung still remembers the first time it happened after she met Yujin. 

She never quite remembers the dying part but she supposes it was caused by her own carelessness and was very painful until it wasn’t. She had found Yujin and spent longer than she would have liked having to chase her around and explain her curse. 

It all sounded very unbelievable that the fae had taken pity on her mother and regifted her life to replace the one that had been taken from Wonyoung before she had seen a day past her seventh year. But it was true and the precocious child who wouldn’t leave Yujin alone really did know all about her and maybe they really had been friends. 

The times after that were difficult to put in chronological order but Wonyoung is unfortunately fond of the time the fae got to Yujin too. To this day she doesn’t know why the fae insisted on calling their tricks charms when there was nothing charming about Wonyoung turning seven years old and having to find her way back to someone who would pretend to be her guardian until she could step out into the world on her own. There was nothing charming about Yujin getting saved by Gahyeon and dying once a year on Wonyoung’s birthday. 

Yujin isn’t quite the same as Wonyoung. Her deaths are scheduled but she forgets everything every time and it is up to Wonyoung to remind her each time that she returns twenty-three hours later. Last year they ended up dying at the same time. Wonyoung doesn’t remember how it happened but it was somehow easier that way to explain things to a person who had no idea that she had been living the same year of her life over and over. 

Things should be easy this time. It had only been sixty days since the last time Yujin died so it will be easy enough for her to understand how things happen. Some years Wonyoung doesn’t die at all but it hasn’t been that long since the last time so Yujin might not even notice the difference. 

The police officers in the front of the car maintain a cheerful dialogue and they even turn around to smile at Wonyoung and tell her everything will be alright, that it is lucky she has such a close friend to accompany her (not that they have met Yujin yet). Wonyoung already knows this and she had only resorted to their help because she has no money. All she has are the things she had the very first time she died. She is surprised the police officers aren’t more concerned for her welfare seeing as she is wearing a hideously out of fashion dress and she doesn’t even have any shoes.

When Yujin opens the door she looks confused and uncertain but she nods at the police officers and explains that Wonyoung’s parents are away and Yujin will assure their frantic relatives that all is well. It is all too easy and Wonyoung doesn’t quite understand it until she walks into the living room and sees Eunbi perched expectantly on the sofa. 

“I knew those officers wouldn’t have believed the story otherwise,” Wonyoung says as she hops onto the seat beside Eunbi. “How did you do it?”

“What’s that?” Eunbi squeals as she pulls her legs up onto the sofa. 

Wonyoung looks down at herself and isn’t sure what it is Eunbi is looking so squeamish about. There aren’t any bugs or creatures clinging to her and she would know if she had stepped in something. It isn’t until Yujin comes in that Wonyoung understands. She supposes her own reaction is appropriate enough seeing as it mirrors what Eunbi did.

Yujin looks down at the girl standing beside her in interest. The girl is wearing a thin hospital gown and her hair is trailing down to her elbows and she is gripping Yujin’s hand tightly. Yujin doesn't look at all concerned and prompts, “What was your name again?”

“Nako,” apparently Nako says in a small voice that is oddly distant from her body. 

“Where did that thing come from?” Eunbi shrieks.

“She came with Wonyoung. Didn’t she die too?”

“Clearly!” Eunbi yells. “But she’s still dead.”

“Are you?” Yujin asks. Her fingers flex around Nako’s hand and she looks happy enough with the proof that she is solid and probably not  _ that _ dead. “Are you sure?”

Nako nods. “I am dead.”

“Oh,” Yujin says. She tries to shake off Nako’s hand but she looks very attached. Yujin only frowns a bit and turns her questioning gaze on Wonyoung. “Is Nako not your friend?”

“No.”

“We can be friends if you want,” Nako says sleepily. 

“How did you get into the house?” Eunbi asks. “I’m a witch. I have set up all sorts of protections around this house so you shouldn’t just be able to just walk in here!”

“This nice lady let me in with that child,” Nako says as she points to Yujin and then Wonyoung. 

“I’m Yujin,” Yujin says. “I die on my birthday every year because Wonyoung asked a fairy to save me. Wonyoung looked like that when she died a million years ago and the fairies made her reappear like that every time she dies. Eunbi is a witch and she does magic things. What are you?”

“I’m dead,” Nako explains. 

“How did you die?” Yujin asks gently. It isn’t the most sensitive of questions but Wonyoung is mostly annoyed that Yujin is asking Nako and hasn’t even remembered to ask Wonyoung. The questions even seems to be useless because Nako hesitates and looks down at her feet before tilting her head up to see Yujin. 

“I’m dead.”

Yujin crouches to hug Nako tightly. Even Eunbi has stopped sputtering and screeching about this ghost that wandered into the house at how forlorn Nako’s tiny voice sounds. Dying isn’t easy for everyone. 

This time Wonyoung slipped down some stone steps near the playground a few streets away. Having a body weak enough to die from bumping her head or slipping over whilst ice skating, or even after a heartbreak when her mother reached the end of her natural life, is something Wonyoung has taken for granted and she supposes that she has lived eighty-two years like this already. She has been alive for eighty-nine years altogether and those first seven years before getting sick and getting injured and dying from each and every thing aren’t even in her memory any longer. 

Even Yujin is easier to console year upon year. Yujin is understanding things the way Wonyoung has realised she should though she strangely thanked Gahyeon when they met most recently, as though living for a shade under a year is something to be happy about. Wonyoung doesn’t ever think about thanking Gahyeon and she was the one who asked her to charm Yujin back to life just as she had done for Wonyoung’s mother. 

But it might be nice if Nako has someone to thank for helping her through her death. “Can we keep her?”

“Why are you asking me?” Eunbi whispers. “It will be the shared responsibility of you and Yujin. Moreso Yujin seeing as you’re a child again.”

“I was a child when I left this morning,” Wonyoung points out. Eunbi shakes her head and Wonyoung gets the point. Yujin is always the same age. Wonyoung just feels older because of how many years and lives have passed her by. She decides to forget about what her old body is doing now, whether it even remains in any physical form when she returns elsewhere to try to remember what home is. 

Wonyoung slides off the sofa and wraps her arms around Nako and Yujin. 

“You’ll get used to it,” Wonyoung whispers like a promise. She isn’t going to let Nako cry alone over something like dying. 


End file.
